Related Stories

The day before federal agents raided a Harris County house converted into a pill factory, they secretly watched Theodore Wilbur Johnson Jr. drive an orange sport utility vehicle to a company that leases mailboxes where he picked up drug-making supplies, according to court documents made public Thursday.

They continued to lie low, documents say, as Johnson allegedly loaded an Infiniti with 10 FedEx boxes containing 440 pounds of chemicals used in the pill-making process, then followed him to the house with the factory, where he pulled inside and shut the garage door.

The next time they would see him was Wednesday, with a warrant to search the house in northwest Harris County. Johnson leaped out a second-floor window, but was caught.

The brief portrait of the surveillance and the first accounting of what was found in the house was made public Thursday as Johnson was charged in federal court with possession with the intent to distribute amphetamine.

Johnson, 30, wore long shorts, a white shirt and high-top sneakers as he stood in leg shackles before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson.

He was advised of his rights, the charge against him, and the possibility of facing up to 10 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

He did not yet have a lawyer, but told the judge he would like to hire one.

Homeland Security Investigations agents meanwhile are still trying to figure out what was being manufactured in the home and where past pills have gone.

Inside the house at 17600 block of Pattiglen, they found 35 pounds of powder they say tested positive for the presence of amphetamine; four tablet-pressing machines; and thousands of pills that had already been pressed, according to an affidavit signed by an agent and filed in federal court.

"Official weight and type analysis for these (pills) is still pending, however a certified police canine did positively alert on these (pills) indicating the presence of narcotics," notes the affidavit by a special agent.

They also searched a house where Johnson lived,and found "an estimated $200,000 to $350,000" in cash; expensive jewelry stashed in the attic; 11 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition as well as a bag of pills similar to those at the factory, according to the agent's affidavit.

Greg Palmore, a spokesman for Homeland Security Investigations, has said he suspected the underground facility has been going on for at least one year. He based that on the amount of fine powder - from the chemicals used to make the pills - that covered the floor and work spaces.

Palmore estimated that hundreds of thousands of Ecstasy pills had been produced.

In recent years, there have been numerous instances of underground manufacturers churning out pills with formulas so new they have not technically been identified. There are attempts to churn out pills faster than authorities can make laws and sell them everywhere from street corners and stores to the Internet.